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Sunday, January 1, 2017

My year in brief, not withstanding the 2016 presidential election: starting to write for the first time in years and create dozens ideas my own for new novels, graphic novels, short stories, and fairy tales, most of them involving autistic and disabled characters, and, unlike with most stories portraying characters with said abilities, have well-rounded characters, distinct motivations and personas, and so on, who are not the only one if their kind in a world where autistics flat-out look like oddities, and even have their distinct cultural identity of their own autistic brethren, even to the point where neurotypicals actually begin to look like oddities. Like Shakespeare, Homer, and the Brothers Grimm, my stories do tend to be somewhat retellings of disability stories-from video games, artwork, internet memes, history, mythology, adaptations of classic stories, and even bits and pieces of old novels here and there from Neuroatypical authors-but with imagination, descriptive powers, imagery, and drawing from experiences that I happy to possess. This is the year also where I received A's in two of my graduate Disability Studies classes at UMKC, the other class from 2015 being one where I got a B, which brings my UMKC GPA to roughly 3.7. I have also started the process creating a distinct on-line video game involving people with disabilities that should appeal to a wide range of on-line gamers, and gotten some career breaks in UMKC's new Disability Propel program, the Missouri Developmental Disability Council, UMKC's Facing Project, writing disability-related articles, and so on. In addition, I have become more positive about finding romantic relationships, and made incredible headway in doing so (young disabled activist/scholar's lives can be incredibly lonely sometimes), gotten together more often with some of my close friends from over the years, seen former teachers and influences; finished over ten books I had gotten it was reading and over seventy graphic novels from other authors; worked thirty-two to forty hour work weeks most weeks depending on my course load; made over two hundred discarded produce bags worth of plarn with my own two hands and scissors; made several new environmentally repurposed crafts, drawings, and over a dozen new watercolors with my art teacher, Donna; and meet others with genuine interest and support of autistic and Neuroatypical people from around the country and around the world through close friends of mine. I was also wise enough to gently leave a former friend who I learned was talking about me behind my back and even went on long, unending rants at me on my own personal posts, that are no longer on those threads; and I happened to lose my cat Peter, who was nineteen, had arthritis, mostly blind and deaf, losing control of his bodily functions, and gave me so much love and support over the past years. Through all these things that I have said, I continue to be inspired by the stories others have told me, including fictional ones, and tell mine in the hopes you all will realize the power your own have. I have also happened to uncover more plots and devices affecting autistic people from self-aggrandizing groups and people who I have dealt with before as far back as Warrensburg and JCCC as recently as my lunch break yesterday afternoon.

My New Year's Resolution: hold close to the people who best understand me and support me, judging for myself who those people are, and learn to quit going out of my way to accomodate those who cannot understand me or accommodate me as well, kindly yet firmly if I can, whether they be family, friends, or caring individuals, I will know when the time comes; not bother when one cannot understand why I am the way I am or do things my way, not to keep being the one to pay each and every time they make the same mistake. History has taught me how a smaller, not larger number of people have changed the course of the world for the better, and when it comes to friends and allies, it IS QUALITY, not quantity that matters, never mind money, influence, or political backing. I know there are others who do not want to see me suffer, but they can stubborn and obtuse also, and I refuse to be weighed down by them any longer.